South Korea information recovered COVID-19 sufferers testing positive again
11 April, 2020
South Korean officials about Friday (Apr 10) reported 91 patients thought cleared of COVID-19 had tested positive again.
Jeong Eun-kyeong, director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), told a briefing that the virus might have been "reactivated" rather than the patients being re-infected.
South Korean wellbeing officials said it remains unclear what is behind the pattern, with epidemiological investigations even so under way.
The prospect of individuals being re-infected with the virus is of international concern, as many countries are hoping that infected populations will develop sufficient immunity to avoid a resurgence of the pandemic.
The South Korean figure had risen from 51 such cases on Monday.
Nearly 7,000 South Koreans have already been reported just as recovered from COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
"The number is only going to increase, 91 is merely the beginning now," said Kim Woo-joo, professor of infectious diseases at Korea University Guro Hospital.
The KCDC's Jeong raised the opportunity that instead of patients being re-infected, the virus may have been "reactivated".
Kim also said sufferers had likely "relapsed" instead of been re-infected.
False test results may be at fault, different specialists said, or remnants of the virus could be in patients' systems however, not be infectious or of danger to the host or other folks.
"There will vary interpretations and many variables," said Jung Ki-suck, professor of pulmonary drugs at Hallym University Sacred Heart and soul Hospital.
"The government must develop responses for each of the variables".
South Korea on Friday reported 27 new circumstances, its lowest after daily circumstances peaked at more than 900 found in past due February, according to KCDC, adding the total stood at 10,450 cases.
The death toll rose by seven to 211, it said.
The town of Daegu, which endured the first large coronavirus outbreak outside of China, reported zero new cases for the very first time since late February.
With at least 6,807 confirmed cases, Daegu makes up about more than half of all South Korea's total infections.
The spread of infections at a church in Daegu drove a spike in cases in South Korea beginning in late February.
The outbreak primarily pushed the tally of confirmed cases higher than anywhere else beyond China, prior to the country used widespread testing and social distancing measures to get the numbers down.
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